[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]
Those nasty, hate-filled, race-baiting liberals are out there at it again, trying to make Republican Obama-haters looks racist:
For the second time in a week, a Colorado field office for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has been targeted.No doubt -- as with the person who opened fire on the Obama office in Denver -- this was actually a false-flag liberal pretending to be a violent right-wing Obama hater, just to make Obama-hating Republicans look bad.
KUSA-TV reported Friday that the campaign’s field office in Conifer, Colorado, was found with swastikas spray-painted on it.
According to The Denver Post, a spokesperson for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department said a deputy answering a vandalism report that morning found three windows and five campaign signs for the president had been vandalized, though he did not know what had been spray-painted on them.
This, at least, is what we hear every time it appears that the right's historical racist element is bubbling back up to the surface of American conservatism thanks to the race-baiting dog-whistle campaigns being conducted by mainstream Republicans -- such as last week's appearance of overtly white-supremacist sentiments at a Mitt Romney rally in Ohio.
It was what we immediately heard from the usual predictable quarters -- not concern about how best to drive out the racist element cropping up on the right, but rather, blame for any liberals who dared point this out. Over at Althouse's place, this was the response:
Shame on you and everyone else who slavered at the opportunity to serve up this racial obscenity.Ah yes, the old "bloody shirt" diversion: The problem isn't the racism on display, it's those evil demagoging liberals pointing it out who are the real issue.
Best of all, Althouse then cites a renowned white nationalist to prove her point.
In the event, applying the same logic, we must reach the conclusion that this shop owner in New Jersey with an overtly racist anti-Obama window display must also be a Romney opponent out to make Republicans look bad, eh?
The picture shows Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, naked except for a primitive loincloth, with a bone through his nose, witch-doctor style. Underneath the image, a caption is written in black and white: 'ObamaCare - coming soon to a clinic near you.' The 'C' is depicted as a classic Communist hammer and sickle, a symbol not as regularly seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.Now, I'm not sure how to explain this guy's rabid recitation of every anti-Obama meme on the planet in his window display, notably those favored by the Fox News bloc, but he simply cannot be an actual conservative, because that would make them look bad, and this simply is an impossibility on Planet Wingnut.
"That's not right. It's racist," said Brinson, a 46-year-old African-American, pointing with a visible wince on his face to the doctored image of Obama as witch-doctor. "I understand that this is America, but the president doesn't deserve this. This is wrong."
But Skuby, 66, a Spring Lake resident, saw nothing wrong with displaying his anti-Obama visual, which has been up since last week, for the world to see.
"A lot of people feel the way I feel, but are just afraid to say it," said Skuby, who said that public response on the street in front of his store ran "70 percent positive" in favor of the display's anti-Obama sentiments. "It always comes down to the race card."
He even pulls out every right-winger's favorite "race card" -- his grandkid is mixed race, so he can't possibly be a racist:
Skuby felt that the proverbial "race card" was one that he could flip over in his favor because of his particular family circumstances.Sure. Just like those lynched empty chairs didn't really mean anything:
"The middle one is my granddaughter," said Skuby, holding up a photo of his now 17-year old biracial grandchild Brett, flanked by two other grandchildren who are white.
"My son married a girl that had a biracial kid. She is every bit a part of our family as the other two in this picture. I'm not racist. And as long as my grandchild doesn't think I'm a racist, I'm perfectly fine with all of this."
Whatever the case, the obvious conclusion -- that the American Right has always contained, and continues to contain, both racist and extremist elements that act out in violent and repugnant ways, and that the current campaign is bringing them back into the mainstream of politics -- simply can't be true. Because otherwise, all of their mainstream enablers on the right would be forced to recognize that their refusal to admit their existence and their resurgence is in fact empowering these racists by providing them with endless wink-and-nudge cover.
Cold reality: Conservatives are not even remotely serious about confronting or dealing with racism in America, no matter how they protest that they "oppose" "racist material". And they prove it to us every day.